There is a good chance you have heard of Orville Redenbacher and his famous popcorn, but did you know he was from Valparaiso, IN? In 1979 Valparaiso had their first Valparaiso Popcorn Festival to salute Redenbacher and popcorn.
This is a two day event with a parade, a 5 mile run and other festivities. As my transportation is limited and the downtown streets are closed off, I once again missed the actual event. However, one of my favorite Valparaiso eateries, Pikk\’s Tavern had a Popcorn Fest Party with musical entertainment. After leaving the hot air balloon festival we headed downtown for some food, beer and music supplied by Funkshoe. These photos were taken at Pikk\’s and downtown Valpo.
[Not a valid template]These photos are from the 21st annual Kiwanis Hot Air BalloonFest at the Porter County Fairgrounds in Valparaiso, Indiana. I was here for last year\’s event and enjoyed it thoroughly, so I hoped the weather would allow the event to go as planned. It was scheduled to be a two day event, September 9 and 10, however the weather on Friday did not look like it was going to cooperate, so I did not bother going there. Saturday was dry and not much wind, but the visibility was limited so the balloons did not seem to go as far as last year. I know one thing, I really want to go for a hot air balloon ride. I will add it to my bucket list.
[Not a valid template]I am back for what will likely be one of my last visits to Indiana. After a long train ride from Los Angeles, Tanya picked up Buddy and me at the Chicago Union Station. Our first stop on the way back to Valparaiso was to the town of Munster and Three Floyds Brew Pub. I discovered this place back in June and immediately fell in love with their beer. I can not say that I have tried any of their brews that I did not like.
Since no visit to Valpo would be complete without a visit to Don Quijote Spanish Restaurante, we stopped by there Friday evening for some tapas and sangria. This weekend is the 33rd Annual Valparaiso Popcorn Festival, Don Quijote had a Pre-Popcorn Party with musical entertainment provided by Keenan Baxter. It made for another fine Valparaiso evening.
These photos are from Three Floyds and Don Quijote\’s.
[Not a valid template]Buddy and I needed to come back to Indiana for a while, so we decided to take Amtrak\’s Southwest Chief from Los Angeles to Chicago. I have ridden Amtrak from Los Angeles to San Diego, and a few times in the Netherlands, but this was definitely the longest train ride I had ever taken. I was looking forward to the adventure since I have driven between CA and IN numerous times in the last few years. I figured that the train would take us through some scenery I had not seen yet and it would provide for some excellent photo opportunities.
It turns out I was wrong. It seems that the train route went through some of the dullest scenery possible and trying to photograph the scenery from the train was pretty much pointless. There was so much reflection on the glass that it soon became apparent that this was not going to work. I tried from the observation car, but the additional windows just caused more reflections. Here are a few photos that did come out.
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